German automaker seems to be reinvesting in electric despite tepid i3 sales.

BMW confirmed to Bloomberg today that it will start work on an electric Mini and an electric X3 SUV. This news comes after reports of deliberation on BMW's electric strategy among the company’s top executives earlier this month.

Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger told Bloomberg that the all-electric Mini would be market-ready by 2019 and the X3 SUV would be a 2020 vehicle.

Reuters reported three weeks ago that BMW’s top executives had been resistant to the idea of building an electric Mini-brand car. Minis have a smaller profit margin than BMW-brand cars, they argued, and the investment costs of building an all-electric vehicle are considerable. A few executives felt that BMW should push ahead in the electric vehicle field, but after the weak US performance of the i3, other bigwigs were apparently not convinced that committing additional investment to purely electric cars would make financial sense.

Reports indicated that BMW’s top brass were also unsure whether to try building an all-electric Mini because the project may be an expensive one—apparently, the Mini’s platform would have to be totally redesigned to accommodate a huge battery, and Mini factories would have to be adapted to accommodate the new model.

But these doubts appear to have been chucked after a strategy meeting during the Paris Auto Show. Krueger told Bloomberg today that both the electric Mini and the electric X3 would have “competitive” prices and ranges.

BMW isn't giving up on the i3 series, though. This summer, BMW announced its electric vehicle would get a new 33kWh battery that would give it 100 miles of range on a full charge.

BMW will have to compete with Daimler’s investments in electric vehicles, as well as Volkswagen’s. VW Group this week announced that it will have a long-range electric car called the I.D. in 2020. The timeliness of the announcement may come from the pressure VW Group is under to appear environmentally friendly after its year-long diesel emissions scandal.

But other automakers, including BMW, are feeling the regulatory push to go electric, too. As Bloomberg writes, “To reach 2021 targets, the European Union is seeking efficiency improvements from automakers that would be roughly double the gains made since 2010. That’s a challenge for BMW, which is also seeking to bolster its lineup of luxury cars to help pay for investment into self-driving technology.”